6:00 : I go home to get ready. Dinner with Jonathan Newhouse = a huge honor = huge amounts of stress.

For once, I know exactly what I’m going to wear: the one, the only, the sublime Balmain dress that Carole gave me a year ago.

This dress is everything it should be. Simple and beautiful. And I still don’t know how it succeeds in giving me the most amazing silhouette I could ever imagine. Well, so I’ve been told. I’m just like everyone else, always thinking I’m too big. (Especially during fashion week, big, tired, and crazy.)

7:30 : The only problem is that when you’re not used to fancier outfits, it’s tough to find stuff to go with the dress.

It’s 10 degrees outside and I’ve got nothing to wear over my dress.

7:36 : But as it is 10 degrees outside, I definitely find something to wear over my dress. I put on a cape and long grey gloves. I tie my hair back and put on some red lipstick because red lipstick = 200 fancy outfits. Even with the red lips, I still freeze.

8:00 : In a taxi with Scott, heading toward the Grand Palais for the Yves Saint Laurent show. He can’t stop telling me how beautiful I am. This guy, he sure gets it.

8:57 : In the Grand Palais. It’s freezing. I don’t really understand the show. But that happens to me often enough.

10:08 : We get to Prunier for dinner. To keep it short, Jonathan Newhouse is the CEO for the international editions of Condé Nast. So all the editor-in-chiefs of all the international Vogues are here. Carine, Franca, Yolanda are here, super glamourous. Anna Dello Russo and Emmanuelle as well. Coolitude on top of coolitude. She’s in a pair of jeans and a Balmain jacket.

10:25 : Christope Decarnin has an incredible gentleness to him. I show him my dress winking at him. He gives me a big smile. I dunno, I thought it might be nice for him to see one of his creations on a normal girl. (Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, normal girl in an exceptional situation, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, exceptional. I agree.)

11:26 : Anna introduces me to Mary-Kate and Ashley. Without sunglasses, all smiley and charming. These girls look devilishly intelligent.

12:20 a.m. : Home again! Near dead! There are still a few mails to check and a post to do.

2:00 : I’m going to sleep at 2, utterly exhausted… But I know that these next two days are the last, and I’m so looking forward to them.

Tuesday, 10:02 : At Chanel, mini-bags with two kinds of lipstick are freebies. Cool! It’s the one from the Vanessa Paradis ad! So beautiful. I put mine right on. I look up and right there, I see… Vanessa Paradis. Hmm. Hmmm sometimes my life just seems so bizarre. Like reality is moving past fiction, just like that, nothing big, two or three times a day.

11:07 : Chanel starts. A giant iceberg under the arches of the Grand Palais, it’s beautiful…

12:36 : I’m talking on the phone with Salomé. At the same time, I’m fumbling around in my bag because I need to send a text to Chris. I’m looking everywhere, turning my bag upside down, and I still can’t find my cell phone. Merde! Where is it?

…

Hmmm.

…

Right next to my face. I’m in the middle of talking to Salomé with it.

Pffffffff I think I’m a little tired.

3:00 : At Chloé, everything is pure, beautiful, and beige, beige, beige. Prepare yourselves for an overdoooooose of beeeeeige!!! As always, all the girls love it. And we filmed the whole thing. So I’ll be back soon! Big hugs!

I stopped reading at 00:12 h because it was a delight to the story: I have conveyed the excitement and the nervousness of a teenager on a first date, do not lose that illusion ever, wherever you are, if you can keep it is the best gift you can do, the dreams and projects are the engines of life. amuaaa !!!!!!!!!!!

You are so lucky Garance! I love reading what you have to say because you are still so humble and grounded about all of the amazing things that are happening to you. What did you think about the Chanel collection? It seems people are very divided about it there is a lot of love/hate going on. Your outfit to the Jonathan Newhouse dinner sounds lovely, I wish we could see it!

You are so adorable. I love that your writing exposes that you are just like “us”–us as in normal girls who admire your blog. As you said “une fille normale” who gets excited about meeting Mary Kate and Ashley. And I feel the same way dressing up for things like that…so hard to find something to go with the dress when you aren’t used to it, but red lips always do the trick.

You looked beautiful that night (but you always do!) Only I wish they had taken a full body shot so we could see all of the dress. (The Olsen girls were so cold they didn’t even take their coats off for the pitures.) Surreal experience, huh? I bet! Soon you’ll be so used to the “big celebrity” life, so we’ll have to enjoy your blog while you’re still one of us normal girls. :)

Re: the Chloe show
Doesn’t the grey look drab as a contrast to the warmth of the beige….beige…and more beige?! I don’t even like most shades of beige because unlike my mother I have pale peach skin. A few of the pieces were very plain but I LOVE that the shades were cappuccino and caramel and camel, at least MIXED with beige. I am soooo jealous that you get to see these shows up close! ;)

Garance, you have a wonderful sense of humour, it’s my compliment. Everything is like a comendy, but it’s difficult sometimes to remember that…I’m fascinating about your talent “to be in fashion reality, but to look at this, remembering that it’s fiction”. Trully objective point? Congratulations.